Ascending on a line?
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Blue Sparkle
Contributor
I'm another relatively new diver. Most of my diving has been warm-water, shallow reef (30' or less, with an occasional 50'), boat dives.
On these dives I have not used a line at all, nor have I ever sent up a buoy. Neither have any of the other divers on the boat, but then the conditions didn't really warrant it.
On a couple of deeper dives on a wreck, we went down and up the buoy line that was already set there.
Oh, and at one site of about 50' where the vis was very poor for the area (5-10') and there were three divers who had hired a guide, the boat put out a weighted down line, and the divers went up and down the line.
Blue Sparkle
On these dives I have not used a line at all, nor have I ever sent up a buoy. Neither have any of the other divers on the boat, but then the conditions didn't really warrant it.
On a couple of deeper dives on a wreck, we went down and up the buoy line that was already set there.
Oh, and at one site of about 50' where the vis was very poor for the area (5-10') and there were three divers who had hired a guide, the boat put out a weighted down line, and the divers went up and down the line.
Blue Sparkle
Yep. It takes far more skill to go up and down using gauges without a line
than it does deploying a surface marker buoy, or going up or down a line
Down and up controlling buoyancy with a clear sealed mask looking at gauges.
The one that comes well before:
finning backwards or
spinning on a perfectly horizontal axis or
spinning on a perfectly vertical axis
with a dime balanced on your head or in the small of your back
with a long hose.
than it does deploying a surface marker buoy, or going up or down a line
Down and up controlling buoyancy with a clear sealed mask looking at gauges.
The one that comes well before:
finning backwards or
spinning on a perfectly horizontal axis or
spinning on a perfectly vertical axis
with a dime balanced on your head or in the small of your back
with a long hose.
A diver should be able to free ascend without a visual reference even at open water level. The CERTAINLY should be able to ascend without holding a line to even gain the qualification.
Not many places have fixed ascent lines. Its far more common to ascend next to a wall or reef or in some places SMB.
If you expect to drift, have boat traffic or similar always use a DSMB. Otherwise, local conditions apply..
Not many places have fixed ascent lines. Its far more common to ascend next to a wall or reef or in some places SMB.
If you expect to drift, have boat traffic or similar always use a DSMB. Otherwise, local conditions apply..
Blackwood
Contributor
Remember what an SMB is. SURFACE MARKER buoy. If you want to tell the surface something (generally: I'm here), you shoot one.
There are other reasons as well. If you think you need an upline in order to provide vertical reference for your ascent, shoot one.
The only hard-and-fast rule for using an SMB is this: "when you need it."
I shore dive more often than I boat dive. The only time I'm shooting off the beach is for practice (either practice shooting or because we're going to be doing stuff in midwater and don't want to drift so we require an anchored reference). Off boats, the vast majority of the time I come up shot or anchor lines and don't shoot. Drifting deco, I shoot. Unable to return to the upline, I shoot. That's about it.
I'm kind of surprised no one mentioned SMB's while in heavy current. If you are attempting to get back to your dive boat in heavy current an unsecured SMB may take you quite a ways away from your boat. While you are hanging for a safety stop the current is moving you further and further along. In the case of heavy current and needing to use and SMB I tie into the bottom. I find the easiest way is to slip the line under a large rock. This will allow you to hang in place, then surface very close to where you started your ascent. Once you are back on board you just give your line a good tug and it will come free from under the rock.
DevonDiver
N/A
I think his definition of 'heavy current' differs from how many other people would define it. 
There are some serious dead-ends to the logic in that advice...which makes me think it is a 'hypothetical' skill rather than a demonstrated one..
If current was too heavy to guarantee return to the start point, then the boat should be roaming to collect the divers.
There are some serious dead-ends to the logic in that advice...which makes me think it is a 'hypothetical' skill rather than a demonstrated one..
If current was too heavy to guarantee return to the start point, then the boat should be roaming to collect the divers.
No, the use of SMBs also appears to be a regional and some what training agency thing. On the west coast they are hardly seen being carried by divers.
If the current is that bad it was probably a bad idea to get in the water. If it changed after you started you should have know the local conditions and looked at a tide chart.
I find it much easier to crab the bottom back to the boat's anchor line and come up on that (or follow the bottom up to shore).
Well that is an interesting and very enlightening response.
Is there a reason why you feel that way?
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